Marketing agencies at a first glance can often generate more questions than answers. Now, yes, we are a marketing agency based in Darlington in the North East of England, and you would expect us to say yes. But let us take you through a few things you should consider when talking to an agency.
At a first glance, information can be presented with technical terminology, which can mean not very much to very many people. Digital marketing, simple enough to grasp, involves computers and focusses on online activities. Easily understood. However, dig deep and you find terminology that doesn’t give you a clear idea of what it is – in terms of the tasks undertaken. Whether it is Marketing Strategy, Search Engine optimisation, audience segmentation or cross channel marketing, it is easy to feel lost when trying to comprehend the actual work undertaken.
More than a minimalist design
Likewise, marketing minimalism has not helped. Marketing minimalism is when you see clean visuals with a word such as a verb, representing action. Equally, whilst this communicates an idea, it doesn’t represent the actual work marketing agencies undertake. Marketers are often seeing the request for less with more design and imagery than actual words.
Whilst the creative, language and design work is easily seen, a huge part of marketing is not. Marketing should understand your customers and develop your strategies to reach them. Marketing allows you to understand who you are trying to reach and helps you reach them regardless of trying to make something look “nice”.
“They just want to take my money!”
Whilst the money part is true, they do run a business after all, you will equally find the (good) agencies will genuinely want to help. Marketing is a self-fulfilling activity and if it isn’t, well the results speak for themselves, and you will go elsewhere. However, be careful when measuring your expectations of marketing – they need to be realistic.
If you want to invest a small amount of money into your marketing, can you really expect big results? The short answer is no. You see when it comes to marketing the barriers to entry are extremely low, you can setup a Facebook, Instagram or TikTok account and start posting immediately. In this case you are in effect marketing. If you spend a little time on it yourself, can you expect big results? Unless you are randomly lucky with a random viral piece of content, the sort you see once every 5 years, the chances are you are not going to get the best results.
The takeaway here? Be realistic with your expectations in relation to your budget. Small budgets deliver small results, one thing is generating your organic content with a blog or social media service, the next is to then add a layer of paid advertising to that to drive reach and ultimately traffic. This is where some may reach for the “boost” button on Facebook, a word of caution. Without proper management and targeting the chances are your campaigns may fall flat in this way.
There is a reason why marketing agencies exist, they (should) know what they are doing and why they are doing it. They will have an idea on realistic budgets for several different tasks. Serious consideration on your budget should be made, racing to the bottom in marketing will deliver just that.
What should you be looking for
So, when engaging with a marketing agency, what should you be looking for? Outline what you hope the marketing will achieve, get specific – outline your budget if you have one. Ask the agency for suggestions on how they think they can deliver your marketing, ask them for realistic expectations that they and you can hope for. Ask them how much of the services are organic – for example social media delivery and how much outreach do they think they should do to deliver the results.
Set out a budget for services and a budget for outbound advertising. Set out key measurement points to assess progress and then adjustment. It is important to develop a partnership with the agency rather than a client – contractor relationship. You should be looking for someone you trust and can work with closely.
When it comes to budget, consider what it was cost for you to hire one person with their set of skills. These skills maybe limited; however, an agency will have people that can deliver numerous services and skills and be equipped with the knowledge to do it effectively.
What questions should you ask a marketing agency?
To finish, here are some questions that you should ask a marketing agency:
1. How do you measure your activities and how long do think it will take to establish the marketing?
2. With the fact you measure data, how do you measure the measureless. How do you track the intangibles? What should we expect to see with the marketing that are not always trackable?
3. When you are doing lead generation, where does your work stop and our work start, and will you look at our processes when it comes to leads?
Finally
Involve yourself, understand the wider process but don’t interfere, empower the agency to do their thing. Build a relationship with a trusted marketing partner. Work together. Marketing is a continual action, and it runs through everything you do as a business.